A report from Business Week reveals that Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp (producers of Fox News) donated a million dollars to the Republican Governors Association in June 2010. Rupert Murdoch owns and manages Fox News which is the leading Cable news program.
Fox News also employs leading Republicans who are potential candidates for federal office, providing them with appearances and their own shows that allow them to promote themselves and their ideas without opposition. Ironically, Fox News continues to describe itself with this phrase—"fair and balanced" reporting of the news.
This is a significant contribution to a partisan electoral committee. There are 37 governorships on the ballot this year. Democrats currently hold a majority of state houses, Republicans hope to reverse that. And since this is a census year, the control of state governments can have a huge impact on the makeup of Congress for the next decade by managing the redistricting process.
What makes this donation unique is that the media are supposed to be unaffiliated politically. How can News Corp and Fox News produce unbiased coverage of electoral issues while spending millions to benefit one political party? Can we really expect them to be critical of the GOP when they are bankrolling their campaigns?
A disturbing consequence of the modern media environment is that giant corporations have been permitted to control so much of the press. Too often, they are devoted only to promoting their own financial and political interests as opposed to informing the public in a fair and balanced way.
The recent Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court means that these corporations can provide virtually unlimited funding to influence elections that impact the lives of millions of Americans. Individual citizens cannot hope to match that kind of political clout, effectively silencing their voices from the political dialogue.
Learning Activity
SIRS Issues Researcher provides a Leading Issue that focuses on the role of the media and media bias in reporting the news and offering opinions—Media Bias.
Assign students to open this Leading Issue using the pathfinder below, and whether to support a Pro or Con position.
Students should then open and read the three links that support that position, and the summary at the end.
Pathfinder
Click the Visual Browse icon > Click Civil Rights and Liberties > Freedom of the Press > Media Bias
Students have the option of using these new 21st Century tools to organize their ideas for a written report of at least 150 words or a PowerPoint presentation of at least seven slides that cites at least three resources.
Students will need to address three or more of the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others):
Do you think that there is liberal media bias—why or why not?
Do you think that there is conservative media bias—why or why not?
Should media companies contribute to one political party and not another?
Should media companies provide free political time to potential candidates and/or employ their services as show presenters?
What reforms would you support to create more balanced and unbiased media news and programming?
Let your students know about SIRS new Timelines feature (video) that provides an historical perspective on drug enforcement and legalization efforts of the past to help students see how efforts were made in the past to solve this problem that persists to the present.
Show your students SIRS new Notes Organizer tool (video)and how they can use copy/paste techniques to create an outline and graphically present their selections of significant information and citations that best supports their position on the issue.
SIRS Leading Issues also provides models that help students address essential questions in a variety of formats. Students can access these models by click the TOOLBOX link near the top right of the issue.
Guide to Writing a Research Paper (student)
Guide to Writing a Mini-Research Paper (teacher and student versions)
Guide to Creating a PowerPoint Presentation (student)
Guide to Creating a Mini-Debate Outline (teacher and student versions)
